Chapter 1- "The Arrival"
The first thing that struck Aurora Thrúd when she let go of her portkey and stumbled down on the wet lawn of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, was the air. It was unexpectedly different from what she had anticipated. It was a rather chilly, damp air that bit her face in a somewhat unpleasant way. Naturally, the temperature here was significantly higher than back in the north- but the tugging sensation that the wet air created made it feel like it went the other way around. This didn't particularly bother Aurora; she was simply surprised to see how much it differentiated from her imagination. She wondered what else would turn out to be different than how she envisioned it.
Still occupied with this thought, she felt a firm grip take hold of her arm and pull her up from the grass, where she, Aurora realised, had been lying for quite a while now. When she stood upright, with both of her feet steady on the ground again- she was met with the sight of a gigantic man looking down on her. "Hello there, had a good trip aye?" the man said, and Aurora, who quickly recovered from the shock of being greeted by such giant-like vision, managed a small nod. "My name is Rubeus Hagrid. I'm groundkeeper here- welcome to Hogwarts!" he said in a thick west county accent, his slightly terrifying appearance softening as he broke into a huge smile.
They proceeded to walk towards the castle together, Hagrid carrying Auroras trunk on his back. The giant chatted on about Hogwarts, while she took in the view of the magnificent building. It was huge, way bigger than Durmstrang, and the view of the many wuthering towers and grand windows was truly breath-taking. After only a few minutes, they arrived at the colossal wooden doors that marked the entrance to the castle. Hagrid opened them for her but didn't enter himself. "Aight then, this is it, I'll just drop yeh off here and someone will come meet yeh in a moment, don't worry bout yer bags- I'll take care of em. Good luck," he said and winked. She was just about to say 'thank you' when something, well- someone, hit her from behind.
The hug was so tight she could barely breathe, and when the attacker finally let go, Aurora sighed in relief. "Oh sorry, was that too tight? I read northerners greet like this, and personally I find it pretty brilliant, hugs are just so cosy, don't you think?" Aurora blinked, speechless. Northerners most definitely did NOT greet like this "Oh right, sorry, I should introduce myself," the attacker said, in a squeaky voice. "I'm Eleanor Hartford, but everyone calls me Nelly. I'm gonna take you to Dumbledore, he's the headmaster, but you probably knew that already. This is just soo exiting, I've never met someone from Durmstrang before, but I bet we'll be the best of friends". The curly haired hug-attacker, who's name was apparently Eleanor, looked a little like an overly exited puppy who had been hit by a bouncing charm gone wrong, Aurora thought. "C'mon then," the attacker grabbed her hand and started walking her through the Hogwarts stairs and corridors, all while continuing a constant stream of talking at an impressive speed and volume. When they finally arrived at the statue that had to be the entrance to the headmaster's office, Auroras ears were ringing. "We're here!" hug-attacker exclaimed, and after she said something to the statue, the wall opened up to reveal another staircase. Aurora hurried inside, desperate to avoid another hug. "Hope you'll end up in Hufflepuff, that's my house!" was the last thing she heard before the wall closed itself again and the stairs started spiralling upwards.
The headmaster, Professor Dumbledore was very nice. Instead of the menacing frown her former headmaster- Igor Karkarroff, usually sported, Dubledore wore a warm and kind expression on his face. They had a brief discussion about her school and schedule, and then she had to fill out some paperwork. "Just one last thing," the silver bearded man said, when she thought they were finally done. He took down a peculiar looking hat from a shelf. After some brief confusion, she realised this must be the sorting-hat that her cousin had told her about. Unlike Durmstrang, Hogwarts had a hat that assigned you to your house, Aurora remembered. She had assumed she would just take her cousins place in the Slytherin house, but apparently the headmaster had other plans for her. "What does it do?" she asked. Professor Dumbledore just said "You'll see." and dropped the hat on her head.
For a moment she was surrounded by a still, silent darkness. Then sha heard an odd sound, that somewhat resembled a yawn, and a voice filled the void. "Hmmm," it said "You're a Durmstrang, so the logical choice would of course be Slytherin, but then again you don't seem very logical do you, difficult this one, difficult indeed. Do you have any requests?" Was the hat talking to her? Yes, the hat was talking to her. A hat was talking to her?! Right, requests, "Erhhm, I don't know." She thought of what the hug-attacker Nelly something had said. "Just, ehm, don't put me in Hufflepuff. Thank you." "Well then," the hat said, "Lets go for a wild card, It'll have to be 'Gryffindor!' " Professor Dumbledore removed the hat from her head and gave her a hint of a smile, a slight twinkle in his eye gave her the impression that he knew something she didn't.
Thankfully, Hug-attacker was gone by the time Aurora got back down from the office, and she was instead escorted to the Gryffindor dorms by a 7th year girl named Leslie. They walked in silence, and relived she saw that the 6th years sleeping dorm was empty when she got there. When the girl had left, she was finally alone. After the long day she was completely exhausted, and practically collapsed onto her assigned bed. She had never appreciated the pleasure of solitude as much as she did now. She closed her eyes and paper thin thoughts fluttered through her mind 'Solitude' 'alone' 'finally alone'. Then reality hit her 'Wait, I'm alone, here, in Britain, a thousand miles away from home, and there is no turning back now, Fuck,' she thought, and then fell into a dreamless sleep...
Authors note: Thank you so much for reading! If you liked the chapter please leave a review, and if you didn't like it please leave a review too because I'd love some feedback. Lots of looveee 333 /V
Edit: Haha I decided to completely change the main characters name. An Aurora is a natural light display in the Earth's sky that can be seen around the Arctic. Thrúd means power or streangth in old norse. X
